Jessica Beels - Pulse: Art and Medicine show at Strathmore

I have spent much of the last 6 months working on pieces for a show now on exhibit (February 16 – April 13, 2013) at Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda, MD – Pulse: Art and Medicine.  

The show presents two-and three-dimensional art inspired by or addressing the subject of medicine, including work by graduates of the Johns Hopkins medical illustration program.

I was honored to be asked to be a part of this show, and even more excited when Harriet Lesser, the curator, offered me the opportunity to fill an entire room with my work.  I made all new work for the show – four pieces, each examining different medical afflictions, and described below.

Deconstructing HPV is a hanging piece, about 18” in diameter, made from handmade flax paper over steel, with a wooden plumb bob suspended in the center.

The form is a stylized replica of the icosahedral structure of the human papilloma virus (HPV). It is a commentary on how all US children aged 12 and older are now recommended to receive the vaccine for HPV, which is often transmitted through sexual contact. As we navigate the struggle to reconcile the beauty and strength of the virus and its destructive role in our lives, the plumb line is a reminder that we must be careful and precise as we deal with both the social and medical issues related to this invasive body.  The hollow core of the plumb bob contains a portion of Helena’s soliloquy in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;

Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste.

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. 

Clot is a three-part series made from handmade abaca paper shrunk over steel frames (each about 20” x 20” x 6”), with aluminum and bronze mesh forms representing blood cells.  Blood clots can kill us or save us.

The blood cells in this piece are made from wire mesh, similar in
structure to the niobium mesh used to evade clots that cause strokes
and heart attacks.  This life-saving material, when woven together as
it is here, catches on itself, much as one imagines blood cells do to
start a clot.  Here, the blood cells are triangular (rather than round) to
represent the Triple Horn of the Norse god Odin, made of three interlocking horns
representing the three draughts of mead Odin drank.  The mead was a source of power and strength, made from the god Kvasir's blood.

Daily Dose is an 8-foot-high corner installation made from handmade flax and abaca paper shrunk over steel wire, with metallic cord, wooden wheels, stainless steel nuts and bolts, a metal pulley, a lead weight, and a limestone rock.  The flexible yet brittle nature of paper shrunk over steel wire echoes our bone fibers’ tenuous strength.  Regular resistance training and a daily dose of calcium can help reverse osteoporosis, so the lead fishing weight (at the top) and the limestone rock (at the bottom) are connected by a golden cord sewing the broken fibers back together.

Pass It On is a 5-part mobile made from handmade flax paper shrunk over steel wire, pieces of glass mirror, copper wire, and metal leaf. The neurons are each about 3 feet in diameter, and they are hung to overlap slightly and collide, sparking each other, and passing energy along. The title of this piece also relates to the possibility that Alzheimer’s disease is hereditary. The mirrors at the nucleus of the cell body refer to memory/identity loss in people with degenerative neurological diseases.